


Second Chance

by Salmaka



Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: Adopting a Child, Canon-Typical Violence, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 16:18:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14336316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salmaka/pseuds/Salmaka
Summary: What will happens after Zach finds a small frightened child hiding after its caravan was killed in the middle of nowhere?





	Second Chance

**Author's Note:**

> A+ summary as always... Seriously it took me way too much time to came up with that one sentence. 
> 
> What start as a two sentences long head-canon has grown into this. I swear this story lives its own life. And I blame our Discord server for this! ;) Stop giving me these Sean feels and ideas! (pls don't stop!!)

Finally, after their visit of Ophir, they were returning to the Valley. There was a need to arrange a few smaller tasks and discuss something with Eliza Major. The visit lasted for several days and the three of them were already looking forward to getting home. Zach was repairing Niesha's weapon on his knees and Niesha sat in the front seat beside their driver. The road went relatively fast, just over another half an hour to the Valley.

 "Amelia, can you see it? …over there," Niesha said suddenly, pointing to the left to one of the canyons off the road.

"No ... wait, yeah. Now I can. It looks like smoke. And there are a lot of tracks."

"Hey," Zach said from behind, apparently engaged in repairs and unaware of his surroundings. "What's happening? Why are we turning?"

"We've seen something and want to check it out."

Rover stopped, and they went towards the smoke source. There were a lot of tracks from people, animals and vehicles. Too much for such a remote place.

"Be careful, I have a bad feeling ‘bout this," Zach said, removing his pistol from his waist. The girls did the same. All the years together as a team paying off.

When they finally rounded a corner, they saw something horrible. There were dead bodies of humans and animals everywhere. In the middle of it, all were two sandsails, one of them on its side. This was the source of the smoke.

"By the Shadow! What happened here?!" Niesha asked with horror.

"Massacre ...," Zach said, and began to look more closely at the terrifying scene in front of him.

"Guessin’ by these armored ostriches - raiders' attack."

"At least they didn’t go without fighting. Poor people took a few of the shitheads with them."

"What was that?" Zach said, looking in the direction of the still-standing sailboat. "I heard something. Look around, I'm gonna check it." With a gun in one hand and a charge on ready in the other, he slowly went toward the source of the sound. His steps quiet.

Meanwhile, the two women were looking at the victims of the attack. Even though they had only two sandsails, it was a small caravan of about seven members.

"What’s got into them to go here? Every good driver knows it's bullshit."

"Maybe they had to. They needed to fix something, and it was a day. This place was the only source of shadow in the middle of this wasteland."

As Amelia and Niesha argued, Zach got just a short distance from the vehicle. He saw a few fresh tracks. Small footprints. Zach quickly hid his weapon and clenched his fist to dampen the spark.

"Is anybody there? You don’t have to be afraid. They're all ... gone. There is no danger anymore."  
He persuaded the survivor a little because he looked out of the tip of the sailboat. And Zach's heart almost stopped. It was a little brown haired boy, about five years old. His steel-blue eyes were big from fear and red from crying. All Zach's vigilance dropped instantly.

He knelt on his knees and continued, "Don’t be afraid, all the evil people are gone. It’s just me and my two friends here. You don’t need to be afraid of anything, trust me."

"Rea-really?" He said in a silent voice and leaned a little more from behind his hiding place, looking at Zach. When he saw the two women and nobody else, he went to the young Mancer. Zach reached out his hand to the child. The boy was looking at him for a moment and Zach tried to look as non-threatful as possible. As much as was possible in his full uniform and with weapons on his belt.

"Hey Sparkle, what's going on there?"

Zachariah ignored everything except that little frightened boy in front of him. "That was Niesha. The other woman is Amelia, driver of our rover. I'm Zachariah," he said, smiling. His hand was still reaching in a friendly gesture. "What’s your name?"

The child took a few more steps from the shelter towards Zach. Then he took his hand and said in his frightened voice, "Se-Sean."

And Zach's heart really stopped this time.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As soon as they arrived in the Valley, they went to Scott's local small clinic. Zach carried small Sean in his arms, his hands around kid's waist and boy was holding him around his neck. His head was hidden.

From the moment he grabbed his hand, Sean didn’t let go of him. As if Zach was safety itself.

"Oh, Zachariah. I see you're finally here. Someone is injured?" Scott said, not raising his head from his desk.

"That we want to find out."

That caught a doctor's attention and he finally turned to the couple standing in his small clinic.

"Oh, Zachariah, who is this young gentleman?"

Scott had always been good with kids, Zach thought, and he quickly shook it off. Now was not the time to think of one's own past. Now it was time to think about the presence and the future of the child in his arms. Zach slowly sat Sean down on doctor's desk. But when he wanted to go and give a bit space for Scott, the boy didn’t let him. Grip of his little hands was incredibly strong. So, Zach sat next to him on the table. Their hands still connected.

"We found him near ... the caravan. He was the only one who was there," the young man said, choosing his words carefully, hoping that Scott would understand what had really happened. "This is Scott, he's a doctor. He'll just look if everything is all right."

"Yes, exactly as Zachariah said, it won’t hurt. Just making sure you're not injured. When you will be good, you will get something sweet." He encouraged Sean and smiled a little.

Everything went smoothly, and the doctor found nothing serious. The boy was just in shock, which was not surprising after all he had to go thru today. Scott told them to come back in two days again and he’ll perform some other tests just to make sure. Zach only hoped that there were no other intentions.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When he crossed the threshold of their house in the Mutant Valley, only he then realized what Andrew would say. He cannot bring a kid to their home and not discuss it with his love and husband. Even if he himself was decided about boy's future for some time now.

"Zach, baby, is that you? What delayed you? I was expecting you an hour ago."

"That ... that's hard to explain. Please, come to the living room?"

"Who is it?" Sean asked, still holding to the young Mancer.

"Zach? What’s goi..." Andrew didn’t finish the sentence when he saw Zach standing in the middle of their living room with a small child in his arms. "Oh-"

"Love, please, don’t freak out?"

"I am not freaking out, I just ..." Andrew obviously lost his words. But then Sean looked at him, and his husband all melt. His whole face was one big smile now. "Hello there! I'm Andrew. What’s your name?"

Sean hid his head in Zach's shoulder again. "This is Andrew. You don’t have to be afraid, he won’t hurt you. He's my husband," Zach encouraged him. Then he whispered to Andrew, "We found him at a caravan ... just him. Scott said he’s still in shock."

"That doesn’t surprise me. Sweetheart, you’re safe here. Me and Zach are going to deal with all the big bad guys and monsters."

Finally, the boy looked at him, studying him and then grabbed his nose. Andrew made a silly face and all three began to laugh and Zach's heart melted. His partner was a natural talent with children. When all of Sean's attention was on the other man, Zach took advantage of the situation and handed him to Andrew. The boy finally let go and grasped Andrew firmly. A good sign that he now trusts both of them.

"So, is it seem fair to you that you know my name and I don’t know yours? Um?"

"Sean, my name is Sean," he said, yawning.

Andrew looked at Zach with a full understanding. "Nice to meet you, Sean. I see it is time for you to go to bed." When Sean protested, Andrew continued, "And what if Zach and I read a nice story to you?"

"Yea! Please, please!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The three of them lay in their not too big bed. Andrew and Zach were lying on their side, each on one side of the bed, and their gaze met over the head of a small boy sleeping in the middle. Sean fell asleep as soon as they put him in bed, and Zach could then explain to Andrew what had happened. Neither Mancer could imagine what he had to experience. No young child should ever be exposed to such a thing. But this is Mars. An inhospitable place where even children aren’t protected from the evil of the world.

"We have to figure out what to do with him now."

"As if you didn’t know. And don’t play stupid for me - I saw that look of yours when you brought him here and he held to you like a tick."

Andrew was right. As soon as the boy grabbed him and didn’t want to let go, his parent instincts kicked in at the speed of light. At that moment, he was the sole island of safety on this evil planet for that freighted boy and Zach would do anything to protect little Sean.

"You're right. I don’t want to, and I can’t give him to someone else ... I fell in love with him in that short time," he said, stroking Sean's hair when he mumbled from his sleep and stirred a little.

"Me too. And we can give him a second chance to have a nice, happy life."

"... which you never got." Suddenly, he knew. Andrew never got such an opportunity. After being thrown out of order he was thrown into the hands of the first asshole who walked past him. Now he had the opportunity to do something that nobody had ever done for him.

"Yeah, I didn’t. That was ‘till I met you again," he said, taking Zach's hand into his own. "And now we can have our own family. What do you think? You, me and little Sean…"

"We'll be the best parents on Mars. We're only missing a dog now," Zach joked and kissed back of Andrew's hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse my potential errors and bad English.  
> PS: I found and corrected some typos.


End file.
